Jalo: 5 key benefits of supply chain management
Understanding how supply chain management works is essential for the success of every business, no matter what industry you belong to. This is one of the best ways to make sure that your customers’ needs and demands are met in the most efficient way. Most importantly, it helps facilitate the proper flow of products and services to greatly boost your company’s organization and productivity.
When a company embraces functional supply chain management, it makes them a step ahead of its competitors. You get to improve your inventory system and minimize risks, giving you competitive benefits such as data transparency and better outputs.
What is supply chain management?
Before we discuss the benefits that you can get from supply chain management, you first need to understand what it means.
Supply chain management involves the entire production flow of goods and services. This is done by sourcing raw materials and transforming them into final products for the consumers to earn a competitive advantage in the market.
In a nutshell, supply chain management aims to have full control over the shipment, production and distribution of a certain product. In this way, businesses can deliver their services to customers faster without having to spend a fortune. There will be tighter control of distribution, sales and inventories of company vendors once SCM is implemented.
Supply chain management has five key elements you should know, including:
Planning
When it comes to meeting the needs of every consumer, supply chain professionals must plan ahead of time. In this stage, they have to design the supply chain in a way that meets the expectations in terms of quality and efficiency. The planning stage must help the company achieve its goals promptly.
Sourcing of raw materials
Another significant element of the supply chain is choosing the best vendors and suppliers ready to provide raw materials for production. You must create contracts, supervise orders, manage inventory and make invoice payments for your chosen suppliers.
Production
As a supply chain professional, you must also oversee the entire production process. In this stage, you will review raw materials before accepting them, making the product and evaluating the packaging.
Shipment
One of the most important components of the supply chain is logistics. You must guarantee that the products are properly delivered to the customers without delays and damages. This can include recording the orders, scheduling shipments and confirming payments from your buyers.
If you’re handling a large company, you should have vehicles such as trucks, tankers and vans to help you deliver shipments.
Returns
In supply chain management, you need to create a committee that handles returning items or products. You may have to reproduce or discard defective products for better quality or return them to the warehouse. This includes the participation of quality control, finance and HR departments, among others.
Benefits of supply chain management
Since the world of business is increasingly getting more cutthroat by the day, it’s hard to keep up with the demands of modern consumers. However, with the use of supply chain management, it will be much easier for you to achieve your long-term business goals.
This is especially true when your company has international operations, allowing you to ship products without damaging your profit. Since you have complete control over shipments, you can improve customer satisfaction by preventing delays in delivery and costly shipping fees.
If you’re considering improving business efficiency, here are some of the best benefits of SCM that you must know:
Improved collaboration
One of the most important similarities between successful businesses today is effective communication. This is an advantage that supply chain management can bring to your company, even if you’re just starting. If there is effective communication, your vendors and distributors can collaborate effectively, making processes more efficient than before.
Aside from that, a better collaboration will allow you to see real changes and progress in your company. It will give you faster access to quotations, status reports and forecasts which can help make informed decisions in the process.
Moreover, having a supply chain management system will let you access performance metrics as well. As a supply chain professional, this will help you choose the right vendors and suppliers to help the company boost its efficiency rate.
The quality of their service, timeliness and structure are available for you to see, helping you determine if they are the appropriate choice for the business.
For more synchronized decision-making and collaboration, more professionals are using different supply chain management software. In this way, they can communicate with their vendors in one place, anytime and anywhere. Here are some of them:
SAP SCM
SAP SCM is a software that uses AI to give you full transparency and analytics when it comes to planning, sourcing and shipping goods and materials on time. Along with this, it offers you various features such as warehouse management and supply chain collaboration.
The software also allows you to work with your partner suppliers in real-time, wherever you are in the world.
Manhattan SCM
Whether you are in retail, pharmaceutical services or manufacturing, Manhattan SCM is the best way to go. It lets you manage your carrier, transportation and distribution of products, among other options. The software’s carrier management feature gives you an exceptional avenue for managing the driver’s working hours and reducing fuel costs.
Highjump SCM
With Highjump SCM, you can easily adapt to market trends and needs in just a matter of time. It is a supply chain management software that lets you respond to changes on your own, making your business catch up with consumer demands. The best features it can offer you are multi-client operations, ERP integrations, yard management and many more.
IFS
If you want to supervise the flow of products without much hassle, IFS is your best choice. It offers a complete set of features that can help you visualise and oversee the process of supply chain management.
Moreover, the features of IFS also enable you to make changes throughout your company with ease. This includes the following:
- Demand forecasting
- Inventory management
- Customer orders
- Warehousing
- Rental management
Whatever software that you choose, make sure that it is compatible with your business. This is because not every supply chain management software is customized for your industry. If you happen to choose the wrong platform, it might negatively impact your supply chain process.
Reduces delays
Another significant benefit of supply chain management is that through coordination, you can lessen delays in distribution and shipments. Because every distributor and vendor is aware of the processes being implemented, this will prevent you from logistical oversights and delays on production lines.
When there are no delays, you’re more likely to save up from costly charges and unforeseen fees. You also boost customer satisfaction since their products will be shipped without a long waiting period.
Better cost management
Supply chain management can assist companies to effectively reduce costs in many areas. For instance, having an effective supply chain can help you cut down costs when dealing with inventory management. With this, supply chain professionals can free up warehouse space to give way for more materials and products.
In this way, companies can stock enough supplies and finished products, helping them meet the ever-growing demands of the consumers. This can also help them determine which warehouses are futile and underproductive which can save a lot of money in the long run.
With supply chain management, you’re able to see the bigger picture when it comes to controlling costs and resources. Eventually, this cost-effectiveness will be beneficial in reducing errors and improving accuracy in fulfilling customer orders.
Enhanced cash flow
Aside from cost-effectiveness, one of the best advantages of supply chain management is sustained cash flow. Since you’re making wiser decisions through choosing the right vendors, adapting to market trends and reducing delays, you’re also improving the revenue.
For instance, if you’re collaborating with dependable suppliers, you’re improving the cash flow since it allows you to get paid instantly without any disruptions. You also get to create statements of account sooner, allowing you to make financial reports on the dot.
Increased quality in the output
Having effective supply chain management in place positively affects the quality of the products and services that you produce. This can prevent you from having to pay for repairs and replacements of items that can harm the budget of your business.
With supply chain management, you have documentation and quality standards that should be complied with at all times. This includes ensuring that suppliers and vendors deliver materials within a deadline and prepare resolutions for potential problems.
In this way, you also avoid earning a bad reputation from your consumers since you deliver satisfactory products. With improved work processes, your business can establish a great brand image in the marketplace.